To all my friends who are still Democrats
Submitted by don mikulecky on Sun, 07/24/2016 - 11:27am
Now that the cesspool of corruption in the Democratic party is being laid bare daily, how can you support this? It is you who are the victims here. And yet it is you who made it all possible.
Long ago many of us saw it all too clearly. We did not chant
Hey!....Hey!....LBJ...How many kids did you kill today?
and then remain "loyal" to the system that killed all those people.
Party loyalty is your sin and it is a big one. The DNC did what it did because YOU allowed them to. YOU are responsible for the state of our democracy not they. You supported and allowed it.
If you are not part of the solution you are the problem.
I am ashamed of you and your compliance with this mockery of democracy.
Comments
Small i independent
Since'91, registered Dem for the first time to vote For Bernie. Will Demexit in a futile yet satisfying gesture after the convention.
Will NOT vote for $hills.
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Agreed, but quoting Bullworth gets kudos from me as well.
The most underrated, terrible film ever made, IMO.
Never another Bush! Never another Clinton!
And never another vote for a candidate who doesn't truthfully represent progress.
The spirit of party serves to enfeeble the Public Administration,
agitates with Jealousies and false alarms, and opens the door to corruption,
which finds access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.
George Washington
I am noncompliant.
Never bought into Bill. Voted for Perot once. Did not vote for Hill for NY senator, blank voting line. Sophie's choice.
Demexited in the 12th, my NY voter registration has not been updated, but I went Green. Hope they get their act together and rolling.
The amount of denial to ignore the Wikileaks is a tough nut. Probably black walnut.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I remember those days...
of living in Harrisburg PA and watching brothers Daniel and Phil go on trial as prisoners of conscious.(For these who don't know...they trespassed a GE plant in Valley Forge where Dan picked up a hammer and symbolically pounded a nuclear weapon re-entry shroud into plowshares.)
Demexit has never been an issue with me. I was in only long enough to vote for Bernie and I'm out already.
I want a Pony!
If you are not part of the solution you are the problem.
So true. DemExit'ed to Green a bit ago but just checked my online voter registration and it's still showing Democratic. Horrors!
So, it's not only 'who counts
So, it's not only 'who counts the votes' but who messes with people's registrations? But of course we knew that after this so-blatantly rigged Dem nomination...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
LBJ followed by Nixon
Thanks for the re-memory. By the time I was "at risk" it was Nixon so I wrote "[Redacted] Nixon's Army" and did the Hail Mary Pass. So, I suppose "they" thought of me as a good democrat, sigh!
I had hopes for Jimmy:
and he commented on the (politics for sale) effect of the "Citizens United vs FEC" decision. For one brief moment I had hope, but no more, never again.
I had forgotten about Carter's amnesty
Thanks for reminding me.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
insightful article
I just read a great article by Robert Reich how this election is establishment vs anti establishment not D vs R. In his view, the Republican Party establishment has already shattered.
The Democratic Party is still clinging to their establishment stand, but how long before even that is shattered?
A good analysis: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/robert-reich-does-hillary-get-it
Even if Hillary did "get it", she would want to get hers
before the system crashed altogether. It wouldn't change her behavior. She's not doing this to save the old order. She's doing this for Hillary.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
She may be in it for herself
but she represents and is working hard for the ratbastard's globally that advance her and their global agenda. She's a true believer in the global rule by her fellow church members in The Family and her cohorts in the PNAC. The Clinton political machine is just a facet of this obscene anti-democratic bloody New World Order.
These 1%'er pshycho's globally want to rule the world. The Clinton's and their ilk are simply political facilitators for the out of control global entities that find democracy to be an impediment to their sick world view. Yes she is doing this to save the order she has always served. She may be like The Hairball a megalomaniac of the worst order but do not underestimate the Clinton's mission globally or Obombers or any of the Third Wayer's.
They are as sick as the fascists that took over the world in the 30's. They are better organized, better armed, have a better propaganda arm to dispense fear, they have the security state in place and their killer goon squads enforcers are busy killing any insurgents here and globally. They are technologically able to manipulate and control both by force and control of information. They know how to pump the fear.This is not an election it's a show these fucker put on to extort your consent to their madness.
They are in their own way more dangerous to humanity and the planet then any other of the psycho thugs who have throughout history sought to rule the world. There not inevitable but it's going to be hard to pry this vampire blood sucking squid off humanities face. Step one imo is to stop believing that this global coup has any validity politically or that it's about the personas of the candidates who are including Bernie all part of this latest greatest fascist, criminal, anti human order to impose itself on the world and call it Yankee Doodle Dandy.
That was the first thing they captured was our system and it's something we all ought to stop caring about. It's a con. It is not about the Clinton's or Bernie or The Hairball or Democrat's or Republicans. It's about a world with google glasses strapped on the face of humanity so that they can implement their Brave New World in all it's horrific glory. This is not what democracy looks like and it's not inevitable despite their claims to be the rulers of the world that they created.
Hillary is not in this for just herself she is the next up inevitable killer and CEO of the current crop of Imperialist looters murderous, lawless world threats. The next in line of the Kissinger, Albright, Thatcher, Blair, western modern pols who are as evil as every hoary threat humanity has faced. They threaten humans and the planet just like the rest of the historical want to rule the world that has come down the pike The latest advocate of we came we saw we killed. No thanks she and the order she represents is as old as the hills and has always had to be pushed back by people at a horrible cost. Were up.
I don't believe the dems will
Make it to the election truthfully. If they do I doubt Hillary will make it through her first term. These two parties have presented us with two amazingly awful choices. It makes we wonder what we are being set up for.
"It makes we wonder what we are being set up for."
Does TPP ring a bell?
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
I've always wondered whether Shillary
even wants to win with some of the stupid shit she has said and done, and there's a tiny part of me right now that wonders if a Rump POTUS is what they really want to finally just bring overt fascism to this country. Every day we see more and more and I wonder how come they aren't better at hiding this stuff, with all their interconnections you'd think they'd be able to do just a bit better with that. I am right there with you wondering what additional thing we're being set up for. We know TPP is part of it but there's
probablymore damage they can't wait to get to.Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
For One, PA Has Closed Primaries
I prefer to be able to vote in primaries, not just for president and senate and big national elections but locally as well. Since I live in Pittsburgh, almost all of my representatives are D's and I'd like to have a say in which D will represent me.
I'm also a loyal rebel. I'll stay in but I won't shut up. I generally don't leave, though sometimes a place will decide to kick me out. And you'll have to kick me out cause I'm not leaving. If that makes sense?
I won't donate to the DNC, the DSCC or the DSCCCC. Is that the right number of C's? I won't contribute to or volunteer for Democratic candidates I don't support. I might still vote for some of them if only to get some of the really bad R's out of office.
I think we could all use a little more complexity in life. I don't know why I can't say "Hey Candidate X, I don't support you and I don't approve of your record. I'm voting for you because you're better than Candidate Y but I am going to raise hell once you're in office and criticize you when you fuck up cause that's how democracy is supposed to work and if you don't get better than you are now I'll fight like hell for someone who opposes you from the left in the next primary!" Because in many ways I think that might be the most sensible option. Hell, I'd love to see us build a movement to primary HRC in 2020--IF she governs as I suspect she will. But maybe the threat alone is enough to move her? Probably not, but what else can you do?
That's how I feel on the matter.
Thank you for giving a depthful
statement of approach that takes into account some of the complexity. I'm evolving on this and trying to come to what for me is a moral and strategically sound position. I don't mind people I trust telling me I'm "a sellout" or "part of the problem," etc. I'll come to my own conclusions soon enough and when I do I'll feel that I've done my best as a species being.
Depends on what you mean by in.
I've followed the strategy you describe for a long adult life. I'm reevaluating it. It makes sense to stay in the Democratic Party to get a vote in primaries, especially since there are few places where a candidate from a third party will win.
Where I'm reevaluating is:
I'm no longer convinced that strategy does anything beyond confirming their expectation that I have no place else to go. The Tea Party took out Senators Richard Lugar, IN, and Mike Castle, DE, in primaries. Both were considered shoe ins. The Tea Party candidates lost both seats and the Republicans failed to take control of the senate.
Now, try to imagine the Republican establishment treating a Tea Party presidential candidate the way the Democratic establishment treated Bernie. They literally wouldn't dare. If they did they would lose.
I don't see any chance of progress until establishment Democrats experience losses because of their failure to do anything but step on the faces of progressive Democrats. Trump, the supreme court and everything else are on them.
I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!
True, but those losses all happened IN
Republican primaries to other Republican candidates. We need to be able to do the same thing on the left to our corporate beholden Democrats.
You miss my point.
You miss my point entirely. They knew perfectly well they were giving up the seats because the incumbents were not conservative enough by their lights. (The candidate they put up in DE had a previous career as a witch. I don't think it paid as well as campaigning as a Republican.) They didn't expect to win. They did it to prove to establishment Republicans that they'd accept a Democrat rather than accept a Republican who deviated too far from their message. Susan Collins certainly got the point.
I don't think we have to go all or nothing, but I can't think of a line in the sand we might have drawn in January that the Clinton campaign hasn't crossed. If you accept nothing you're very likely to get nothing.
They won't let us
Democratic corporatist insiders fight leftist insurgents in primaries far more fiercely than they fight Republicans in the general. Ask Bernie Sanders. Losing to Republicans doesn't cost them their jobs or positions. Ask Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Make a bad showing against an economic populist primary candidate who's not in Wall Street's pocket -- well, now, that's a much different and more threatening thing to them. If the Sanders wing were to gain ascendancy in the party most of them would be out on their asses. They have no intention of letting that happen.
I've felt the way you do for a decade or so, but I'm finally giving up. At this point I think it's a more meaningful political statement to join the over 40% of the electorate who can't stand to belong to either party. If we can drive Democratic numbers down to 25% or less of the electorate, then maybe we'll finally be sending a message. The parties have disenfranchised the voters. It's time the voters delegitimized the parties.
Please help support caucus99percent!
I'm in NY
under the same conditions. But there's an incumbent racket here, so I rarely get a choice in the primary (usually an occasional city council choice due to term limits). I'm so fed up I don't give a shit if I can't vote in the primary. And if someone good comes along I can always change my registration for that election. I'm going with the WFP this week.
As for this election, if it were held today, I'd vote for trump. No way in hell should hillary clinton and the democratic party get away with rigging this election. I'd rather suffer through 4 years of trump than allow a rigged election.
DWS is resinging
Too late. Her work is already done. This is a victory how?
Voting for order vs. chaos
Which in this case means that yes, I will vote for HRC vs. Trump. But like greywolfe, I will stay in but I won't shut up.
I do want to see the Green party become a viable force in the elections, and I think we need to move beyond a two party system. We also need to reverse Citizens Unitied, have automatic voter registration, open primaries, universal mail ballots for verifiable voting, and to reinstate DoJ oversight over states which suppress minority voters.
If all that means nothing and you all are still snootily "ashamed of me", too f***ing bad. You have your battlefield and I have mine.
Thank you for your honesty and willingness
to think for yourself. Please see my previous comment. I want to hear a vigorous and honest sharing of ideas on these fundamental moral and strategic questions.
Shame
I have neither the right nor the desire to be ashamed of you. Nor will I be shamed by people making your choice into following your example. I'm told if I vote for Stein and Trump wins, I'm responsible for every terrible decision he makes. If you vote for Clinton and she wins are you prepared to take responsibility for every civilian killed by a drone strike, every job lost because of the TPP, and potential catastrophic consequences arising from her determination to increase military pressure on Russia?
We have a lot in common or we wouldn't be communicating in this space. Let's work together when we can and respect each other when we differ.
Perfeclty expressed
I just copied this statement for future use with many of my friends.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
i've been the sucker for decades
i didn't take an active interest in politics until 2000. before then i just defaulted to the Democrat. after 2000 it became more about fearing the Republican. i've been giving power to the machinery either way. Kerry was not my choice in 2004 primary and Obama was not my choice in 2008 primary but they got my vote in the general. Sanders was my choice in 2016 but i will not vote for the Democratic nominee in the GE this year as the default or out of fear. i'm walking away.
One good thing has come out of this for me
I've been giving thousands of dollars to democrats in every election. After they show their true cronyistic color, it saves me a lot of money :).
I only have a recurring contribution to Jill Stein now. It feels good. It will be even better when the Democratic Party crashes and burns.
Still have one foot in the Party and the rest of me out
I'm working as an independent this election season, have been since last year. I pick and choose the candidates I support. Some are Dems some independent.
A couple of months ago, some kidz from DC who came to town to set up shop called and asked me to meet with them to discuss supporting the "Democratic Party Ticket". I told them in no uncertain terms that I was a Bernie supporter and had no intention of working for Hillary. They still tried to persuade me to get on board and help the other candidates, too. I told them I do just fine on my own. I know the word was passed around because I received some errant comments in emails and on FB, but I'm sticking to my guns. I may lose some friends over this, but my elder years and my kids' futures are more important to me.
But you can still call me a "rogue" Democrat. I haven't left the Party yet, but for all practical purposes I have.
Still waiting to see what happens during and after the Convention to determine my next moves.
"If you can't eat their food, drink their booze, take their money and then vote against them you've got no business being in Congress."